by
David M. Jarzen
Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa*

In 1986 Public Works Canada embarked on a programme to produce a series of stone carvings to adorn the walls of the House of Commons Chamber, along the shoulders of archways (spandrels) enclosing the public galleries. Parliament later approved a series of fourteen carvings to represent the "Origin of Life in Canada." It was proposed that these carvings would acknowledge the internationally recognized work of Canada's paleontologists and provide the public with a view into Canada's prehistory.

The beautifully detailed carvings are the creations of Eleanor Milne and Maurice Joanisse, the Government of Canada's only professional stone sculptors. Maurice, a student of Milne's since 1971, is now carving the entire prehistory life series from Milne's meticulously detailed designs. Working patiently and researching each detail of the fossil organism that he creates in stone, Maurice spends about four months on each sculpture. Sculptures already completed include dramatic and detailed representations of Smilodon, Triceratops, trilobites, dragonflies and Eusthenopteron, a primitive Devonian fish.

Of interest to CAP readers is the choice of Aquilapollenites as a candidate for one of the sculptures. Early in 1986 Dr Dale Russell and I were approached by Eleanor Milne to provide subject material which she could incorporate into the Cretaceous-age carvings. Excited at the prospect of having palynology forever preserved in the Parliament buildings, I selected Aquilapollenites Rouse (sensu lato) as appropriate to represent a part of Canada's plant history. Eleanor Milne was delighted with the "bizarre" yet intriguing morphology of these "tiny architectural wonders."

A well-written and beautifully illustrated account of the work of Eleanor Milne and Maurice Joanisse is that of Dugas (1992) in which one of the color photographs (p. 79) shows Maurice and Eleanor discussing the early stages of the Aquilapollenites sculpture.

One of the archway carvings to be installed during the summer of 1993 on the House of Commons walls is a representation of an ostrich dinosaur flanked above by leaves of Gunnera and below by a stylized rosette of four specimens of Aquilapollenites. The sculptures are carved in the fine-grained, nearly white, Indiana Limestone (Mississippian) since this rock material is easily carved and usually free of inclusions (including fossils) which may mar the appearance of the final work.

The specimens chosen for Maurice to carve were styled from SEM and LM photomicrographs of Aquilapollenites (Integricorpus) clarireticulatus recovered from the Lea Park and Foremost Formations (Campanian), Youngstown borehole, southeastern Alberta. Radforth and Rouse (1954) were the first Canadian palynologists to illustrate and describe specimens of Aquilapollenites (as N₁, N₂ "Not previously described") and later Rouse (1957, p. 371) provided the first validly published diagnosis of the new genus. In doing so Rouse noted that "The form genus Aquilapollenites has been formulated to incorporate two pollen forms of unknown botanical affiliation which occur in the Brazeau and Oldman formations and appear to be characteristic microfossils of these Upper Cretaceous formations."

The carvings of the four grains of Aquilapollenites are arranged in a cruciform pattern with the long axis (polar axis) aligned radially. Overall the four-specimen circle (rosette) measures about 30 cm in diameter. Even at this size, detail of the reticulate surface could not be carved onto the sculpture as the soft limestone tends to crumble when closely spaced, fine lines are required. Once in place, however, high above the floor of the House of Commons Chamber, the grains will, indeed, be recognizable as Aquilapollenites.

Certainly the importance of Aquilapollenites in Canadian Late Cretaceous biostratigraphy need not be stressed here; however, its inclusion in the Parliament buildings will assure its permanence as the only fossil pollen grain so honoured.

References

Dugas, G., 1992. Master Sculptor: Our history comes to life at the hands of Eleanor Milne; (with photography by Ron Devries). Canadian Geographic 113(1):68-77, Jan/Feb 1992.

Radforth, N. W., and G. E. Rouse, 1954. The classification of recently discovered Cretaceous plant microfossils of potential importance to the stratigraphy of Western Canadian coals. Canadian Journal of Botany 32:187-201.

Rouse, G. E., 1957. The application of a new nomenclatural approach to Upper Cretaceous plant microfossils from Western Canada. Canadian Journal of Botany 35:349-375.

*Present address: Paleobotany and Palynology Laboratory, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

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This article first appeared in CAP Newsletter 16(1):6-7, 1993. Contact information updated in January 2008. Black and white images replaced with colour versions, January 2008.